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The 2006 awards, presented on 6 February 2007, saw a welcome re-vamp of the awards ceremony, which in the past has tended to be a rather tedious affair. Under the direction of Yuri Ng, one of HK’s top choreographers, the audience was treated to a brisk and witty handling of the actual presentations, led by independent dancer/choreographer Abby Chan accompanied by three male dancers from the three big professional dance companies, with words thankfully kept to the minimum by both presenters and recipients.

There was a pleasingly eclectic variety of dance on display, ranging from Chinese opera to contemporary improvisation, from tap to hip-hop and from uniformed school children doing folk dancing to the finale of Balanchine’s Theme & Variations, performed by HK Ballet. As well as Theme, performance highlights included the stunning, atmospheric Chinese dance piece Once in a Silent Night, created for students of the HK Academy for Performing Arts, and a clever take on Chinese Opera with an extract performed in traditional style by two Opera artists, then re-visited by two Chinese Contemporary dancers.

The only damp squib of the evening was the failure of Jackie Chan to collect his Distinguished Achievement Award, as he was filming overseas. He did send a video message and his son collected the award on his behalf, but it must have been disappointing for the organizers in terms of the publicity they had hoped the award would generate. Happily the other Distinguished Achiever, HK Ballet’s retiring CEO, Helen Ng, was there and made a typically warm, no-nonsense speech.
 

The awards this year were very much in line with my own views on 2006 - and therefore obviously right! I was bowled over by Chan Yi Jing’s performances for City Contemporary Dance Company in Nijinsky and Testimony, and by the whole production, choreography and design of Testimony, which I believe to be a major work. HKB’s Jin Yao has gone from strength to strength in the past 2 years, and I was especially pleased to see her honoured for her Myrthe, which is among the finest I have seen. The award to HKB for the Balanchine & Beyond programme was both well deserved in itself, and a clear vote of encouragement for the company’s new AD, John Meehan. (My reviews of all the above may be found on Ballet.co.) Hong Kong Dance Company has been going through a bad patch in recent times, but their dancers are excellent, and it was good to see them recognized. The full list of awards is below.

Recipients of the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2007

Hong Kong Ballet Production and performance of Balanchine & Beyond

CCDC Production of Testimony

Liu Yinghong - Performance in Hong Kong Dance Company's Red Poppies ( the role of Younger Son) and The smiling, Proud Wanderer (the role of Linghu Chong)

Huang Lei - Performance in Hong Kong Dance Company's Dream Dances

Chan Yi Jing - Performance in CCDC’s Nijinsky and Testimony

Jin Yao - Performance in productions such as HK Ballet’s Giselle and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux

Yu Pik-yim and Dancers - Choreography of HKAPA’s Once in a Silent Night

Leo Cheung - Lighting and set design of CCDC’s Testimony

Cui Binghua Costume design of HK Dance Company’s Red Poppies

Jaspar Lau - Work in dance criticism

Asian People’s Theatre Festival Society and Centre for Community Cultural Development : DanceAbility Community Dance Project

Distinguished Achievement Awards:

Helen Ng CEO of Hong Kong Ballet in the past 10 years

Jackie Chan Outstanding and sustained support and as an artist of human kinetics